Originally posted by: RetroSauce
I don't know why it's so frowned upon. If people want to be covered then pay the extra 3% or whatever. When I first joined the forum, every person I bought from requested that I paid with "gift." I had no problem doing so if their feedback was in line.. I guess were going in circles. Thanks for the post, when I sell from now on I will be sure to mark up my prices a little and tell people to not pay with "gift." That why I don't loose interest from all the "gift" haters.
Ya know... I've been at this since the mid-late '90s and until NA, I'd never had someone request a "gift" payment for an item (though some of that span is pre-paypal), and the only places I've really ever seen it "expected" is here. When you are merchant, you factor your expenses into your price, this is standard practice. However, having a buyer offer gift payment as a haggling tactic is not something I would personally frown upon, it's just the expectation that irks me. Perhaps I have a different view because I've actually owned a store before (a "real" one, ya know, with a building and a license, and taxes and everything).
If you decide to charge a dollar more than you otherwise would because you expect most people will want to pay via paypal, no biggie... most people are not going to notice (or care), you're just compensating for the cost of business. However, if you charge a differing amount based on payment type, you are discriminating against a group of buyers, or at least that's how it's viewed... Think of it more that way... it's not a matter of the difference in cost (since people are going to buy from whatever the cheaper option is in a competitive market), but one of perception.
This shouldn't stop two grown [wo]men from having a transaction of whatever form they wish (I'll trade you five donkeys... and a pack of fruit stripe gum). For instance, I was recently shopping for a new bicycle and as part of the purchase process I haggled the price a hair by offering to pay in cash money (for a bit over a two-thousand dollar purchase) and saved myself a few dollars because the money was going directly into the coffers of the seller. I wasn't being expected to pay in cash, but when I offered to make it easy for the seller, he extended me the same courtesy. It's the same thing. Charge what the market will bear and if the buyer wants to "help you out" pass the savings. I'm not saying NA needs a flat ban on gift payment, but saying you can't ask for it is fair for the buyer and still allows you to make whatever sort of side deal you wish.